Steam Holiday Auction goes live, then gets taken down after players exploit the system

Steam tries to innovate their various sales and events in many different ways. Each Summer Sale for instance has some sort of new gimmick; One year it started with the unique Summer Sale cards, then we had the Summer Camp Teams where players compete against one another in hopes to win free games.

This holiday season, Steam started the Holiday Auction, in which players recycle items from their Inventory, mainly Steam Trading Cards, and turn them into Gems. These Gems can then be compiled to bid on various games. Once the bidding process is over, the person with the highest bid would then win the game for free.

However, things didn't go over so well. Apparently players have been exploiting the system and found some loopholes with Gems, which forced Steam to temporarily suspend the auction. This is what Steam wrote on their FAQ:

Sorry, but there have been some issues with Gems and the Steam Holiday Auction has been temporarily closed. The elves are working frantically to get the issues sorted out, and the auction will start again as soon as they're done.

Those that still wanted to participate in the auction can rest easy knowing that it's not down for good, and it will eventually come back again.

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